Tag Archives: Andromeda Galaxy

M31 Andromeda Galaxy Astrophotography Learning Curve

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The first object that I got a satisfactory image of with my tracking mount and telescope and DSLR was M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, from the dark skies of Dell City, Texas in October 2022.  My first image, above, was a 3 minute long exposure.  I was so excited to have a good image that I took a picture of my camera’s viewfinder to send the picture to people.  

When I came home to Friendswood, Texas, I did some experiments to see if I could get the same results.  It was not a surprise when the answer was “no” – my home skies are much more light polluted – I expected to get a completely white screen and was surprised when I could still see a hint of the galaxy.

I started to learn how to use PixInsight, a powerhouse astrophotography processing tool, in the winter of 2022.  I learned enough to be able to stack 18 3 minute images to make my Christmas card photo and the picture I am still using as my computer background at work.

I’ve learned a more about astrophotography processing since then, most notably adding Russ Croman’s excellent BlurXterminator, NoiseXterminator, and StarXterminator tools to my toolbox and learning a ton from Adam Block’s videos.  So I reprocessed the data above using my current knowledge and toolset.

Finally, in October 2024, we were back in Dell City, and I collected new M31 data using an astrocamera and red, blue, green and hydrogen-alpha filters.  I had to learn more in order to be able to merge the Ha data into the RGB data.  Luckily, there are Adam Block’s videos!  One new trick I had to use was “continuum subtraction” – removing the background red from the stars from the Ha data.  

Sometimes, when other things aren’t working out (comet processing), it’s good to step back and see how far you’ve come. I’ve learned a lot over two years … and I’m looking forward to learning a lot more!

What are you learning about?

Andromeda Galaxy – Processed

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I spent my Christmas holiday working on learning how to use the astrophotography processing tool PixInsight.  There’s an enormous amount to learn, and I’m looking forward to learning more.  But I am happy with the results of my first project – the Andromeda Galaxy.

For comparison, here is a single 3 minute shot with only basic processing.  I think the processing is worth it!

Camera geek info:

  • Canon EOS 60D in manual mode, 179 second exposure, ISO 1600, custom white balance 3500K
  • Williams Optics Zenith Star 73 III APO telescope
  • Williams Optics Flat 73A
  • iOptron CEM40
  • Dell City, Texas Bortle 2-3 dark skies

Processing geek info:

  • PixInsight
  • 18 3 minute lights
  • 10 3 minute darks
  • 50 bias frames
  • No flats 
  • ImageIntegration Darks to make Master Dark
  • ImageIntegration and Superbias flats to make Master Flat
  • Lights processed with
    • Blink
    • Subframe Selector
    • Image Calibration
    • Cosmetic Correction
    • Debayer
    • Star Alignment
    • Image Integration
    • Automatic Background Extractor
    • Background Neutralization
    • Color Calibration
    • Histogram Transfer
    • HDR Multiscale Transform
    • Curves Transformation
    • DarkStructureEnhance
  • About 20 hours of labor learning the tool. Whew!

3 Minute Andromeda Galaxy Comparison Part 2

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After my previous 3 minute Andromeda Galaxy comparison, I decided I needed to get a light pollution filter to get better pictures from my driveway given our Bortle 7 skies.  I picked up a SkyTech 2” LPRO-MAX CCD Filter and the image above is the result. 

For comparison, here is a picture using the same settings and location with no filter.

And here is a picture using the same settings from Bortle 2 skies.

All these pictures used the same equipment and settings.  For the purposes of this comparison, I did not do any processing.  I think the filter was worth it.  Dark skies are definitely worth it!

Camera geek info:

  • Canon EOS 60D in manual mode, 179 second exposure, ISO 1600, custom white balance 3500K
  • Williams Optics Zenith Star 73 III APO telescope
  • Williams Optics Flat 73A
  • iOptron CEM40

I also experimented with settings to use from my driveway.  Results are in the table below.  Lowering the exposure length and ISO cut down on the sky noise.  I’ll have to see what I can do with the 1 minute ISO 400 images in PixInsight.  

SiteBortleFilterExposure LengthISOResult
Dell City, Texas2 – 3None3 minutes1600Gorgeous detail in M31, M32 and M110 visible
Friendswood, Texas7None3 minutes1600Almost all white picture
Friendswood, Texas7Light Pollution3 minutes1600Bright blue background, M31 as a fuzzball, M110 visible, M32 not obvious
Friendswood, Texas7Light Pollution2 minutes1600Teal blue background, M31 as a fuzzball, M110 visible, M32 not obvious
Friendswood, Texas7Light Pollution1 minutes1600Dark blue background, M31 as a fuzzball, M110 visible, M32 not obvious
Friendswood, Texas7Light Pollution1 minutes400Very dark blue background, M31 as a smaller fuzzball, M110 visible, M32 not obvious

3 Minute Andromeda Galaxy Comparison

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In October, I got this fantastic picture of the Andromeda Galaxy from Dell City, Texas with its Bortle 2 – 3 dark skies.  

Camera geek info:

  • Canon EOS 60D in manual mode, 179 second exposure, ISO 1600, custom white balance 3500K
  • Williams Optics Zenith Star 73 III APO telescope
  • Williams Optics Flat 73A
  • iOptron CEM40
  • Dell City, Texas Bortle 2-3 dark skies

I wanted to see what happened when I used the exact same setup and settings from my driveway in Friendswood, Texas with its Bortle 7 (much much brighter) skies.  My suspicion was that the picture would be all white.  

On my first opportunity to try the experiment, there was also a two days past full Moon in the same section of the sky.  As you can see, I did get an almost all-white picture.

I backed off to ISO100 to avoid overexposing the picture, but then I didn’t get near the detail that I got from the dark skies.

I didn’t know how much the overexposure was due to the near-full Moon and how much was due to light pollution.

Yesterday, I got the chance to try the experiment again with no Moon.  As you can see, at the dark skies setting, I again got an almost all-white picture.

I backed off to ISO100 and ISO400 to avoid overexposing the picture, but again I didn’t get the detail I did under darker skies.

All of the pictures in this blog post are unprocessed, other than being saved to a lower resolution format.  It will be interesting to see what I can get when they are processed.

How dark are your skies?

SiteBortleMoonExposure LengthISOResult
Dell City, Texas2 – 3No Moon3 minutes1600Gorgeous detail in M31, M32 and M101 visible
Friendswood, Texas7Near Full Moon3 minutes1600Almost all white picture
Friendswood, Texas7Near Full Moon3 minutes100M31 as a fuzzball, M32 and M101 not obvious
Friendswood, Texas7No Moon3 minutes1600Almost all white picture
Friendswood, Texas7No Moon3 minutes100M31 as a fuzzball, M32 and M101 not obvious
Friendswood, Texas7No Moon3 minutes400M31 as a larger fuzzball, M32 and M101 barely visible

3 Minute Pictures from Dell City – October 2022

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A few weeks ago, we took my telescope and tracking mount on a road trip to our favorite Air B&B in Dell City, Texas.  My telescope and I enjoyed the dark (Bortle 2-3) skies.

Here are some three minute long exposure images I was able to get:

Andromeda Galaxy (M31) plus two satellite galaxies (M32 and M110).  The Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest large galaxy to our own, at 2.5 million light years away.  Its apparent size is 3.167 degrees by 1 degree.  In comparison, the Moon has an apparent size of 0.52 degrees on average.  The Andromeda Galaxy filled the screen on my camera – this image is not cropped at all.  It has an apparent magnitude of 3.44. 

Triangulum Galaxy (M33).  The Triangulum Galaxy is the third largest galaxy in our local group, after the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way.  It’s 2.73 million light years away, and its apparent size is 1.2 degrees by 0.7 degrees.  It has an apparent magnitude of 5.72.  

Crab Nebula (M1) with Mars.  M1 is the remnant of a supernova observed in 1054.  It’s located in the Milky Way, 6500 light years away.  Its apparent size is 7 arcminutes by 6 arcminutes, and it has an apparent magnitude of 8.4.  Mars, of course, is the fourth planet in our own solar system, and the brightest object by far in the image.  

Eye of God (or Helix) Nebula (NGC7293).  The Helix Nebula is planetary nebula – the gases expelled from a star before it becomes a white dwarf, lit up by that star.  It’s located in the Milky Way, approximately 655 light years away.  Its apparent size is 25 arcminutes, and it has an apparent magnitude of 7.6.  

Orion Nebula (M42).  The Orion Nebula is one of my favorite objects in the sky, and one I’ve photographed before.  It’s a diffuse nebula, a cloud of dust and gas that is forming new stars.  It’s located in the Milky Way, about 1344 light years away.  Its apparent size is 65 by 60 arcminutes, and it has an apparent magnitude of 4.

Camera geek info:

  • Canon EOS 60D in manual mode, 179 second exposure, ISO 1600, custom white balance 3500K
  • Williams Optics Zenith Star 73 III APO telescope
  • Williams Optics Flat 73A
  • iOptron CEM40
  • Dell City, Texas Bortle 2-3 dark skies

I’m really looking forward to photographing these from my suburban driveway to see how the images compare.  It will be interesting to see if I get a white screen (pure light pollution) at these settings.  I’ll let you know!

I’m also looking forward to learning how to stack together a sequence of images with PixInsight to see what an hour plus image looks like.  I’ll share that when I figure out how to do it!

October 30, 2022 New(ish) Astrophotography Tools

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Camera geek info:

  • Panasonic DMC-GF7 set at f/2.5, 30 second exposure, ISO 800
  • LUMIX G 14/F2.5 II, 14 mm fixed
  • Tripod

Camera geek info:

  • Panasonic DMC-GF7 set at f/2.5, 10 second exposure, ISO 6400
  • LUMIX G 14/F2.5 II, 14 mm fixed
  • Tripod

Since summer 2021, I’ve been acquiring some more advanced astrophotography tools (toys?).  

My first and biggest acquisition was a new tracking mount with GoTo capability, an iOptron CEM40.  This was my first GoTo tracking mount, and it is amazing.  It is so much easier to enter the object to point towards and watch the mount rotate to point the camera there than to iterate on camera images to find the object.  It is also a beautiful mechanical device.  I bought it because of its design and because it is relatively lightweight but could still handle the 8” or 10” telescope I eventually wanted to get.  However, it came with a steep learning curve.   

One thing I learned was that there are two different alignments that need to be done: the polar alignment to physically align the tracking axis with celestial north, and the GoTo alignment.  Just polar aligning is not sufficient.

For polar alignment, the mount comes with a polar alignment camera, but when I got it, the software only ran on a PC, which I did not have (there is a Mac version now, but I have not played with that yet).  So I was using the polar iterate align option with the digital display on my camera, and that was a slow, frustrating, and sometimes unsuccessful process.  

For the GoTo alignment, I use the three star alignment technique.  I read that the mount will try to combine new alignment measurements with the previous ones, so I delete the old alignment data prior to aligning.  I also search for zero position to get the mount set prior to doing any alignment.

My second acquisition was a Celestron StarPointer Pro Finderscope.  It made a huge improvement in my ability to align the tracking mount over using my camera screen to align it.  

My third acquisition was a Williams Optics Zenith Star 73 III APO telescope.  It is a 430 mm focal length, 73 mm diameter two element refractor.  It is a beautiful piece of hardware.  Although it is significantly smaller than what I originally intended to get, I picked it because I wanted to photograph larger objects such as the Andromeda Galaxy and because the larger the telescope gets, the more difficult it is to point.  And since I was still struggling with alignment … 

My fourth acquisition was a very low end PC to interface with the polar alignment camera.  It made a huge improvement in my ability to polar align the tracking mount.  What, even with a finderscope, was a slow and frustrating process, is now a less than 2 minute process, and much more accurate.

With all that, and a lot of trial and error, I am now very pleased with the images that this setup is producing.  As a teaser, here is a picture of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31).  

Camera geek info:

  • Canon EOS 60D in manual mode, 179 second exposure, ISO 1600, custom white balance 3500K
  • Williams Optics Zenith Star 73 III APO telescope
  • Williams Optics Flat 73A
  • iOptron CEM40

Expect to see more in the future!